Posted on 07/26/2013 12:53:13 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
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Cucumbers, green beans, squash, zukes continue to produce well, and I am now out of jars. Will have to buy more to can some more pickles and green beans.
Some tomatoes have started to ripen, and we are bringing them in as soon as they get a blush. One of the tomato plants had about 14 big tomatoes on it, and they all disappered, leaving just a few new starts. Originally, Hubby said there was nothing left, and he thought maybe someone had taken them.
So, today, I asked him to show me the plant. Walked on down the hill, and found the remainder of a chewed up tomato close to where a family of bunnies is known to hangout. They ignored the trap with nice red tomatoes from the grocery store-ha ha- smart bunnies.
I have found that slugs are what happened to the sunflowers, so beer bait and diatemaceous earth are the treatments we are trying.
Still pending: What is chewing on the grain Amaranth plant and ignoring the leaf amaranth? Why are the peach trees dying? Still researching and looking at pics of various diseases I have found on the web.
In addition to Hubby's peach trees, his grapes have issues. The fruit is turning bad before ripening.
Anyway, I have been able to get cukes and melons growing for the first time since 2010. After last year, I am happy as a clam for the produce we have aquired so far. I have canned about 6.5 cases of produce, put up some frozen green beans, and have another batch of cukes and squash waiting.
Hubby's corn is not doing so well, He won't give it additional water, and while the rain has been adequate for most of our stuff, it hasn't been enough for the corn. I did catch him watering some of the tomatoes and squash, so I guess we know what he likes best.LOL
Pinging the List. Hope you are all doing well. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
/johnny
The tomatoes, however, are hurting badly. I think the blight is back, even though I dug and burned and ashed the soil from the last time it showed up about three years ago.
Most of the tomato plants are the Better Boy variety. Is there one more resistant to the blight?
/johnny
It’s paprikaville here at Lake of the Ozarks.
The three paprika plants are kicking out bright red fruit at a pretty good clip. Taking advice from a fellow club member, I cut these into slices and dried them on a pizza pan in a convection oven, slowly at 150 F.
At about 3 hours, the strips and seeds are dry and about crunchy. These go into an electric coffee grinder and I have a nearly full pint jar of ready to use paprika powder.
Great on chicken, pork roasts, chili, etc.
I need to see about growing some here next year.
/johnny
I have tomatoes that are sooooo close to being ripe, it’s hard not to pick them early! My runner beans are starting to get fat enough that I’m leaving them for seed (which was the main reason for planting them, I needed to expand my seed supply.) My potatoes have needed hilling for about a month now, but all the lawn clippings I was promised for mulch are getting thrown out instead. When I can stand for more than 2 minutes, I’ll start looking for alternatives around the yard. There’s a maple tree growing through the fence that I can take all the leaves I want off of, that might work.
I sort-of got permission to raise rabbits in the back yard. Dad was talking in baby-talk again, which means he didn’t think I was serious or else that I’m not capable of such a thing. He does that a lot. But I’m going to anyway, and mom is backing me up! As soon as I heal enough to build a cage for them. I’m thinking bunny-tractor, just because it would be easiest to clean. I’m using my recovery time to study rabbit nutrition and dispatching techniques, which were kind of ignored by the rabbit-raising books I have. (On nutrition, the books refused to acknowledge anything other than commercial pellets. One author even said he wouldn’t sell to anyone who planned to raise all their own rabbit food. Fortunately, there are other resources.)
Oh, I should mention that the rabbits I raise will, of course, have nothing to do with the ones currently breeding in my front garden, which I now have permission to live-trap. Even if they do turn out to look exactly the same...
Did some calculations, and it might be easier to make a living off my plant-breeding than I thought, assuming my crosses are successful and I get them stabilized soon. Especially with seed prices climbing the way they are. A few years ago, you could get a packet of 100 tomato seeds for $0.95. Now it’s a packet of 25 seeds for $2 or more.
Last week we had killer heat and humidity. This week, to pay us back, we are having reasonable temperatures and low humidity. Tomorrow I plan on pulling up the thistles that took over last week.
I love the Scots, but curse their thistles!
I love fresh green peppers, lightly sauted or stir fried with onions and other veggies mixed with rice, or stuffed with a slice of steak in fajitas.
Great to spruce up a salad too.LOL
My mid season pepper transplants are beginning to bear fruit. I hope to get enough to make some pickled peppers with onions, but I eat them so fast, it’s hard to collect enough for a batch.LOL
I don’t like them mushy though-it’s the texture. I love the filling for stuffed peppers, but can’t stand to eat the pepper after all the cooking that typical recipes have.
I am thinking that I might try making the stuffing part and chopping up the peppers really tiny to get the flavor, and then stir frying some on the side or just heating in the oven or microwave to the point where they are still crisp/tender and then stuffing them and serving them with out any additional cooking.
That way I could have crisp pepper with all the good stuffing taste. LOL
Maybe to them. I can’t tell any difference. The grain type is located on the downhill end of a raised bed, and the leaf type is on the uphill end of the same bed.
Maybe the critters haven’t found their way through the peanuts to the uphill end? Maybe the nutrient level/moisture is different?? Who knows?
Maybe one is more repellent to this particular insect. I am going to have to take a magnifying glass out there. So far I have not been able to detect a single bug.
Me Too!!! Hate the thistles. Revolutionary army was full of Scotts/Irish. They hated the Brits, so you gotta love contribution they made to getting our independence.
I love paprika, almost everything gets a dash or handful depending on what’s cooking. I will have to plant some next year.
100º here again today. Nothing growing in the garden for now. I need to pull up all the dead plants and get ready for the fall garden. Just a slight chance for a shower later today.
I have Ear Worms eating my corn and Powdery mildew killing my cantaloupes and squash.
Zone 9 central Florida
Any advice is more than welcome.
Started using Bacilus Threngiensis on the Corn but now it looks pretty dried out, may be too late.
Thinking using Chlorothalonil on the lopes but they look pretty bad by now as well.
New at this so be nice ;-)
I’m all shades of green with envy. Hubby’s corn didn’t do - again. They’ll make little bitty ears but won’t fill out and then die. Yes, plenty of water.
The only maters producing are some of the yellow pears. I’m all excited that one is giving me some that are nearly twice the size of the norm. Definitely saving those seeds. It’s one that I had intentionally grown from saved seeds so saving the larger seeds each year might be paying off. The other varieties are either taller than my head or still little bitty plants after all these months. None are even thinking of blooming. Maybe this fall will change things around.
I had planted a carrot top and it’s blooming so am looking to get seeds off it soon. There’s a broccoli that is starting to bloom so need to grab the seeds off it, too. Weeding this morning, I found 3 red onion blubs so guess something dug them up. I thought they had all disappeared a couple months ago so planted them by the gate to see what happens. Something went through all the sweet onions and then made the red onions disappear, too. Never did figure out what happened.
I gave up on the two zukes and pulled them up yesterday. I’m tired of trying to save them from the bugs. I have some other squashes coming up so we’ll see if later plantings work any better. I know they won’t but whatever.
The chicken wire is keeping the armadillos out (knock on wood) but the cat that’s been hanging around left me a present in the enclosure this morning. I’m going to view it as fertilizer. It’s my fault because I’ve started leaving food and water out for him/her this week. The big slobber bucket also left a present in the middle of the path to the garden and he just looked at me like he had no clue what I was talking about. Clueless is his normal look except when he’s called to the kitchen or told it’s time to go to the garden.
No rain this week and three digit temps. Whew, the weeds are taking over. I can’t keep up with them.
The tomato plants that you buy from walmart etc are also very expensive compared to what they used to be. You could probably sell them at the farmers market, when/if you have room to start them.
I have found out a planting truth, I think, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I have to plant a bunch of something in order to have any make it through the growing/producing process. I only planted three Sunflowers to see if they would produce this late in the season. Yesterday, saw a
Sunflower had been eaten. First, what I have:
I have three food items on the deck, bunched together. Large tomato planter with seven or eight baby tomato plants growing. Then, the ten gallon bag with four Sweet Potatoes growing, and the three Sunflowers in fabric pots.
With only three Sunflowers, the other two may be eaten, too, since one has - the stalk is still there of the one eaten. By the time I notice something has been eaten or is dying, I need more planted to begin with to treat them so some survive. I noticed a few small holes in a few leaves of the Sweet Potato plants. I only have four so that is not enough to overcome a problem. Net was covering the plants and row cover was over them at night so squirrels and birds did not do this.
In the evening yesterday, for the potatoes and Sunflowers, I sprayed the plant body, and all the leaves on the top and bottom of leaves with “Garden Safe Fungicide 3”, which kills fungus, insects, and spider mites. There is a long list of stuff it kills but it's safe for veggies.
This morning, in my hang over state, I just took off the row cover and went back inside. I'll look closely when I go out later to spray again.
As for Texas sun that burned up everything that was in the dirt garden, where I have these plants on the deck gives them morning and noon sun, then they are in the shade - they won't burn up and I hope they are getting enough sun.
I haven’t put up the wire fence to keep the dog out so I can put squirrel pellets down. The ground should be dry enough to do that now and the fence stay in the ground. However, I need to be more steady on my feet before I do that and maybe that will be tomorrow if I’m over pain pill unsteadiness.
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